Just completed a six-night stay on points. An unexpected highlight was a happy hour with two other FlyerTalkers and their wives. Lovely time. My overall impression is that the property is naturally stunning, the room is extremely private, the service is top notch, and the food was wonderful. No real complaints. But everything certainly does feel expensive. First time to Maldives for me. The sun shined all week and effectively no rain.

Booked into a Sunrise Villa and requested in advance and accepted a $75++/night upgrade offer to the Sunset Villa. I didn’t ask and was not offered any additional upgrade for Diamond status. GM indicated about 60% capacity, and for most of the week I didn’t have neighbors on either side.

Including seaplane x 2 and the room upgrade charge, total folio was just north of $4000. Three nice dinners out with a glass or two of wine, sunset room service one night (wonderful and definitely less expensive) a couple beers and drinks from mini-bar/Rangali bar per day, a fishing trip and whale shark excursion, etc. Most days didn’t really have a sit-down lunch. No scuba diving and none of the fixed price dinners. Took advantage of a few freebies (sunrise yoga was great).

Villa: I was in 329 and it was fantastic as has been reported in previous threads. The privacy walls flair outward giving a wider view; Villu for happy hour / breakfast and Dhoni boat launch are both super close; and the villa angle provides for an unobstructed view of the horizon. The sunset (in late Sept., at least) is not centered off the back deck but is visible and stunning. We snorkeled off the back and there are smaller fish and some live corals. Plenty deep water especially at high tide. Also, for most of the week the prevailing winds seemed to blow out of the West and I really enjoyed the breeze on the villa deck. It is hot in the Maldives especially on leeward side.

Food: My wife cooks well and often and she and I both really enjoyed the fare here. Mandhoo and Uufa were better than Sunset Grill in our opinion. The Mandhoo physical space/building is very nice. Recommend to have breakfast at both Villu (quaint, quiet, on the water, made-to-order) and Atolli (Intl spread) as they are quite different and both great. The 4-5 pm HH happy hour was always fun and service was good to keep the drinks flowing. Every day included a signature cocktail to choose from. Very small canape plate served. We brough snacks for the room as most recommend to do, but they are pretty much all in my luggages on the trip home.

From a complete trip experience, you are handled by Conrad staff from the minute you walk landside at MLE all the way back to the MLE departure check in counter queues. I like that.

The house reef condition is pretty-widely reported at this point. Still tons of fish and fun to cruise, but I wish I could have seen it in the previous state. If you are on the Rangali Island side as I was, I recommend to take a trip over to the main island to catch the sunrise from the beach.

Oh, and at the end of the week the staff were all jazzed up over the Conrad service team hosting – and winning – the local volleyball tourney against the other resorts’ service staff.

DM for pics or questions.